Page 98 - SCAT Rural Voice II - 35 Stories for 35 Years

YOUTH
I WANTED TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE,
SO I JOINED THE ADVICE OFFICE
Zithobile Zondani doing garden work as part of (Left to right) Nomfanelo Blayi, Zithobile Zondani, Zoliswa Zoliswa Dayimani.
the Berlin Advice Office IDT contract.
Dayini working in the vegetable fields for the IDT contract.
VUYANI zATU LEARNT FIRST HAND ABOUT POVERTY WHEN HE DID DOOR TO DOOR RESEARCH FOR STATISTICS SA IN KING WILLIAMS TOWN, BERLIN AND SURROUNDING VILLAGES. THIS INSPIRED HIM TO jOIN THE BERLIN ADVICE OFFICE AS A VOLUNTEER.
I was born and grew up playing on the dusty streets of Zwelitsha township in King William’s Town in the 80s. I started my schooling there. I loved playing football on the rocky playground with my friends. In the early 1990s I moved to Berlin where I finished my schooling. After finishing school, I looked for greener pastures and found a job at Statistics South Africa. It was a short-term contract for six months. It was while doing door to door research for Statistics SA that I realised the dire poverty and lack of education of many families in King William’s Town, Berlin and surrounding small villages. The streets in the villages were not tarred. Children played in front of RDP houses with rusty roofs.
I wanted to make a difference to the lives of this community whose homes I visited during my door to door research, so I joined Berlin Advice Centre as a volunteer. I was eventually employed full-time as an administrator. One day while I was doing a home visit in Berlin I met a young girl who was the head of her family. Both her parents died because of HIV and AIDS. At the age of 17, she had to give up school and her dreams to find work doing washing for other people, earning R50.00 to put food on the table for her two young brothers. I could not bear to see this young girl sacrifice her Advice Office chances of a better future. Because of the contacts we have established at the Advice Office, I reported this case to a social worker who works in our region. She helped by giving food and uniforms to those children. The young girl was able to return to school. Her younger brothers also received soccer boots from a local business man. We helped the children make a small vegetable garden at the back of their home. We gave them seedlings to plant so that could get nutritious food from that garden. We also provided them with counselling through the social development department so that they could process and learn to cope with the loss of their parents.
It is by helping with cases like this, where I can see we have made a positive change to young people’s lives, that I feel privileged to be working for the Advice Office.
VuyAni zAtu
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RuRal Voice ii: 35 stories for 35 years